Lancia Motor Club

I have just heard that Bill Boddy, editor of Motor Sort Magazine for so many years has died peacefully, aged 98, at his home in Wales.

The end of an era.  An overused phrase, but true in this instance:

Been reading his stuff since I first found a copy of MS in a doctor's waiting room in the early '70s.  He was a model journalist, I thought.  Set the standard.

My almost full bound set of Motorsport Magazine is my main reference library.

That's sad, but he did have a good innings. MS hasn't been the same since he left.

He never 'actually' left and will always be remembered as Founder Editor William Boddy MBE.  He lived through exciting and sometimes very difficult times but created a fearsome style of critical writing that frightened one manufacturer into banning the magazine from testing their products. He always cited C G Grey as his mentor, another man of strong opinions who was liked/disliked within the aviation world. Boddy was passionate about his subject and together with DSJ they formed a great authority on all things motoring. That he lived to a good age after inhaling all those nasty fumes associated with old cars gives the rest of us cause for hope.

A good innings in every sense. Motor Sport with W.B. and Jenks  were the highlight of the month for me back in the 1960s. I must have read his piece, 'The Best Small-Car Currently Available?'  on the 1200cc Fulvia in April 1966 100's of times. It was reproduced in the special Fulvia edition of the LMC Journal Autumn 1977.

Lovely picture of him in the current VSCC The Bulletin to celebrate his 98th birthday.

Robin.

It was his anti seat-belt stand that I particularly remember him for---one of the many reasons that I still so much enjoy driving my Aprilia. Mind you I think the H&S brigade even wore him down in the end.
Incidentally it was the waiting room at the barbers shop where I discovered him, back in the fifties!

I should really be at Silverstone but cant be bothered standing in the middle of a disused airfield in the pouring rain. Rather watch F1 practice on my lap top. Boddy was defiantly British and even though he attacked Ford on several occasions for retaining 'cartspring' suspension he was one of the first to congratulate BMC in 1959 on producing the Mini, he even ran one as an everyday car. Later, when Ford were championing the Cortina he shunned their old fashioned design and supported BMC again by running an Austin 1100. Not until 1972 did he accept a Ford Escort Mexico as a runaround which I think he wrote off somewhere in Wales on his way home from London. It was remarkable that he first wrote for Motor Sport in 1930, aged seventeen and became editor in 1935. he was the oldest active member of the Guild of Motoring Writers when he died, aged 98. Oh look, its stopped raining!  Attached piccy of a very familiar Aurelia 

An article we should bear in mind for whatever publications are assembled for the Fulvia 50th in 2013.

The memorial service for Bill Boddy will be held at St Andrew's Church, Church Street, Presteigne, Powys at 14.00hrs this Friday followed by sandwiches at the Radnorshire Arms, High Street. Those attending with their vintage/veteran cars will be particularly welcome 

Final goodbye to Bill Boddy today. Good turnout at the Radnorshire Arms. End of an era.